FINAL FANTASY XVI

Great game, but this port is extremely unpolished. Major issues with lag during cutscenes and framerate drops in a few areas. There is a unoffical patch which helps with these issues somewhat, but does not fix them entirely. However, would reccomend if these issues are fixed in the future.

The side quests are mostly boring; there's a few standouts, but it's mostly just "There's a merchant being held up by bandits (or monsters), gotta help em out!" kinda thing, or the occasional "Hey Clive, I know you're busy saving the world, but you need to go find me some cooking ingredients by killing X mobs and picking some flowers. Thanks b**ch). The main story has its moments, but I never really got into it, either. It feels like they wanted this to be Game of Thrones really bad, but they copied season 7-8, instead of season 1-6. It gets better near the end, but I was around 40 hours in before I was actively interested in some of the things happening. Aside from 2-3 songs, the soundtrack was basically forgettable (which is unfortunate for a Final Fantasy game). 99% of the loot in the game is worthless. You get tons of crafting materials you'll never use. If you get a new weapon or piece of armor, you're not using it very long, and it's usually a miniscule upgrade that you barely notice. The game gives you party members sometimes, but it still feels like Clive (and sometimes Torgal, your wolf) are the only characters in the party. Characters like Jill etc are there, but you don't equip them, you don't give them commands, you don't level them; they just kind of exist for cut-scene purposes now and again. The game has some high points for sure, but there's just more meh/middle-ground than anything imho. The combat can sometimes be fun, but often feels like a slog when you have to fight an enemy that has a ton of HP; the fights aren't even hard, they just take forever. Same with the Eikon battles; they look really cool sometimes, but they're ridiculously easy and they take forever. The entire game is basically an extremely forgiving action hack'n slash with cut-scenes between fights. During my entire play-through I never died a single time, or really even came close. I know other people have fun with the game though, so obviously everything here is just my opinion. Watch some game play videos for yourself and if it looks interesting, buy it, but I suggest getting it while it's on sale so you don't feel let down like I did. For the TLDR people; Some pros. The graphics are nice. Most of the voice acting was pretty good. I like at least half of the characters I'm forced to interact with. I can pet my dog. Some cool cinematic cut-scenes here and there. Some cons. Lackluster combat. Mostly forgettable soundtrack. Painfully boring/repetitive side quests. Party members that don't effect anything outside of cut-scenes. Pointless loot.

[b]Final Fantasy XVI: A totally chill game that definitely didn’t emotionally ruin me[/b] Let’s get one thing straight: [i]Final Fantasy XVI[/i] delivers an unforgettable experience — gripping narrative, fast-paced combat, devastatingly good soundtrack, and emotional storytelling that will (without question) hit you at least once per hour. Maybe twice if you’re soft like me. [b]But before I spill the tea — please read this![/b] I gush about the [i]story, combat, characters, soundtrack and DLC vibes[/i] — but there are [b]no major spoilers[/b] here. No key plot reveals or twists. Just minor details, personal reactions, general impressions, and emotional chaos. If you’re suuuper spoiler-sensitive, be aware that there may be [b]light story hints[/b] and descriptions of the game’s vibe, but nothing that would ruin the experience. Enjoy ♡ [b]Story & Setting:[/b] At the heart of [i]Final Fantasy XVI[/i] is [i]Clive Rosfield[/i] — the kind of protagonist you want to squish and protect ಥ﹏ಥ. A tragic event tears his world apart, and he’s left with grief, guilt, and a burning desire for answers and revenge. What follows is a years-long journey through the war-torn land of Valisthea, where realms fight over dwindling magical resources called [b]Mothercrystals[/b]. These towering, glowing crystals are the source of the world’s magic — and everyone’s desperate to control them. Each realm also has its own [b]Dominant[/b], a chosen person who houses a powerful god-like being known as an [b]Eikon[/b]. Clive’s story is full of political twists, shocking reveals, and deeply emotional moments. He starts as a broken man seeking revenge — and slowly becomes something more. It’s dark, mature, and genuinely moving. [b]Combat:[/b] This ain’t your classic turn-based Final Fantasy. [i]FFXVI[/i] dives headfirst into [i]real-time, action-heavy combat[/i]. You’ll be dodging, slicing, combo-chaining, and launching giant Eikon powers like a total legend. It’s stylish, punchy, and satisfying — especially when you pull off those perfect dodges. But the REAL combat highlights are the [b]Eikon battles[/b] — battles where you take control of these god-like beings and wreak havoc on the battlefield. Those battles are CINEMATIC. CHAOTIC. AMAZING. They feel like boss fights from a final movie act — and I loved every second. Plus, the game includes some nice accessibility options (for example, items that make dodging or healing easier) so you can focus on the fun without feeling like you’re stuck in a rhythm game from hell. [b]Side Quests:[/b] Mhm.. side quests. I completed all of them. I went in thinking, “Oh, this’ll be chill.” Wrong. You start off delivering meals and end up sobbing over the state of the world and people’s lives. Some aren’t just regular side quests — they deepen the lore, expand your understanding of Valisthea, and give humanity to the NPCs — they’re worth doing. No regrets. Except the emotional damage. Thanks, Square Enix. I didn’t ask to feel this much, but here we are… [b]Soundtrack:[/b] Masayoshi Soken didn’t compose music. He [i]summoned feelings[/i]. From haunting piano themes to thunderous orchestras, every note ties directly into the narrative. Certain tracks hit so hard I started tearing up before anything even happened on screen. Each Eikon fight has its own track and every one of them goes hard. Battle music? Bangers. Quiet scenes? Beautiful. The soundtrack is permanently lodged in my brain and probably in my next therapy session too. [b]The DLCs:[/b] I jumped into both DLCs — [b]Echoes of the Fallen[/b] and [b]The Rising Tide[/b] — and yep, turns out I wasn’t emotionally safe after the credits rolled. [b]Echoes of the Fallen[/b] dives into the darker corners of Valisthea’s lore, and gives you some great items for NG+. [b]The Rising Tide[/b] is visually stunning and emotionally brutal — oh, and the end boss? Let’s just say I screamed, ripped my hair out, smashed my controller in the most dramatic way possible, made a weird sound I’ve never made before, and then had to sit in silence for a minute. That being said, the DLCs are definitely [b]worth it[/b] if you love the game‘s world and want more, but they’re [b]not necessary[/b] if you just want to focus on the main story. Personally, I enjoyed them a lot, but those opinions may vary! ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ [b]Final Thoughts[/b] (˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶) .ᐟ.ᐟ As a longtime Final Fantasy fan, I’m baffled by the hate. Yes, it’s different. But it still has the soul of the series: iconic characters, incredible worldbuilding, emotional weight, and a story that punches you in the heart over and over again. Could the combat outside of Eikon fights use more variety? Sure. But I was too emotionally wrecked to care. I was locked in — sobbing, laughing, yelling. Clive’s journey? Beautifully tragic. The side characters? Layered and unforgettable. The lore? Addictive. The soundtrack? Hurt me. The vibes? Immaculate. All of this adds up to one of MY [b]all-time favorite[/b] gaming experiences. I’m still thinking about it daily, planning my next NG+ run on Final Fantasy Mode, and convincing my friends they HAVE to play it. This isn’t just a game for me — it’s a beautifully wrecking ball of storytelling, spectacle, and emotion — and I couldn’t love it more. Also, my screenshot folder is on the verge of collapse. I physically cannot go five minutes without hitting the capture button because [i]everything[/i] in this game is gorgeous. The lighting, the characters, the landscapes — even the emotional devastation is beautifully rendered. Square Enix didn’t have to go this hard but they DID. This game gave me trust issues, existential dread, and a deeply unhealthy emotional attachment to several characters. The story slapped, the combat slayed, and the soundtrack personally dragged me into the abyss. I laughed, I cried, I questioned my life choices, and at one point I may have yelled “NOOO” at my screen while sobbing and sniffling so loudly I sounded like a broken vacuum cleaner. I went in expecting cool swords and pretty graphics, and left with emotional trauma, four favorite characters I can never emotionally recover from, and a playlist that makes me cry in the shower ദ്ദി( ╥ ᴗ ╥) Would I recommend it? [b]Absolutely.[/b] 10/10 story. 10/10 emotional damage. Would let it destroy me again.

A classic case of, "I wish there was a neutral option." FFXVI is not bad. Parts are, in fact, quite good. But as many have noted, the story is basically, "Game of Thrones but with twinks and kaiju." The combat is fun but not quite engaging enough for something that is trying to feel like an ARPG; you wind up just banging "X" a lot. The game also doesn't really utilize party members well, or at all, even. Nominally they help you by cleaning up trash mobs but otherwise they just follow you around and act as exposition. I feel more could have been done with that, and should have, since one of the central tropes in FF is the "party of unlikely heroes." I may come back to it, but after 15 hours I could see where the game was going, and it honestly started to feel like a slog. Still: if you are an ardent FF fan, there's enough in here to worth a try.

Try the demo, if you can run that smoothly all of the time, this might be for you. It's the worst optimized game I've played in years. I could not for the life of me get this game to run at even 30fps. Low settings, everything off. Every kind of Upscaling tested. FFXVI-FIX installed and tried all kinds of tweaks. Updated every driver known to man. Uninstalled drivers and reinstalled. Set priorities in windows, cleared shader caches. Nothing worked. For shame Square Enix.

Side quests feel like a boring waste 90% of the time but the rest of the game is a masterpiece.

*＊✿❀　❀✿＊* This was an awesome ride. It’s a long game, but absolutely worth every hour. The only small downside for me was some of the sidequest, they can feel a bit repetitive, but that’s easy to overlook considering everything else the game does right. What really stood out to me was how alive the characters feel. ღ Their relationships are genuine and grow naturally over time. There are no sudden shifts or forced drama; just pure, emotional storytelling. Watching them develop, especially the main cast, was truly rewarding. Musically, FFXVI is nothing short of sublime. Masayoshi Soken’s score doesn’t simply accompany the story, it elevates it. Each piece is deeply emotional, majestic, and timed with perfect precision to enhance the drama, the quiet sorrow, or the soaring triumph. It’s a soundtrack that resonates, echoing the emotional highs and lows of the journey. Visually and musically is on another level. It's not just a highlight of the franchise. It’s a reminder of how powerful video games can be as a form of art. I’d love to keep writing about this wonderful game, but honestly, words don’t quite do it justice :) ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚

nope, great boss fights and cinematics. However it's paced so poorly. For me the combat was repetitive. Amazing story but the game was made by an MMO team and it shows with the very poor pacing and fetch quest padding. It does lack most JRPG elements as well but that's not a complete turn off for me. I really did enjoy it until the hide out became a thing. It goes like this, Awesome fight, awesome story, standstill pacing, exposition dump, followed by another awesome hit of joy. But it's just not challenging and the side content is lacking. Also no real endgame content on the vanilla version. I'm happy if you enjoy it because it does have awesome potential. But there's just too many flaws that messed with my immersion and ability to be committed to the story.

Runs perfectly if you have a 16GB VRAM or above card (ex: RTX 5070 Ti). I know that's a big ask but that's what it takes to run this masterpiece smoothly on PC. Clive is bae in all glorious 4K. And unlike Rebirth, there's no Chadley or Mai here. 10/10 game for me.

3070 with 8gb of vram running everything on ultra, 0 performance issues outside of fps drops during fights while streaming on discord. this game has pulled me out of a gaming burnout that lasted for years. engaging story, fantastic lead characters with believable chemistry, and fun combat. some people have called it a "spam game," but you don't have to play like that lol

They cooked so hard with this game wtf. It's got its lows (PC performance most of all) but the game underneath has pretty deep combat and some of the best boss fights I've ever played. Honestly, it's worth playing this entire game just for the [spoiler]Titan Lost[/spoiler] fight alone.

Fantastic game. Amazing boss fights and I really enjoyed the late notorious mark fights. I did struggle to enjoy doing some of the side quests.

Final fantasy killing it again with its stories. FFXVI is such a good story, no spoilers but i cried like a baby at the end. Beautiful graphics, some of the most beautiful that i've ever seen as of writing this. FFXV used to be the most graphically beautiful game for me but this one hit it out the park. Stylistically speaking this game is much dark in the environments as it's technically part of the lore, completely linear, and feature a more hack and slash type of combat, with a lot of emphasis on parrying and counterattacking. The game is rated R and it definitely shows in the story. It's absolutely amazing that a mainline final fantasy tells such a mature story. You can tell from the get go when they show the very first fight in the game where it's all blood and gore in the battlefield that this isn't your usual final fantasy experience, and it's so nice for a change. The music is absolutely phenomenal, the composer, Soken, absolutely killed it with many of the songs and i've added around 30 songs to my playlist to listen to it at all times. They range from epic orchestral grandeur symphonies with huge choirs for important battles to relaxing flute, piano and violin forest, big field songs, ethereal out-of-this-world borderline experimental magic themes or just a EDM Devil May Cry-esque metal song with choir chants. It really shows why it won best music score on the 2023 game awards, absolutely deserved award. The amount of hours i've spent taking pictures of this game is insane, i've used photo mode so many times because every single landscape is absolutely beautiful and i couldn't stop myself. I've taken around 300 screenshots of the game. I love it. Some of the side missions are a little annoying, like some fetching quests, but others are absolute and pure cinema and definitely add a lot to the lore and worldbuilding, especially the ones from early and end game. The gameplay adds a lot of variety of builds to work with, whether you want a build that's focused sorely on damage input after staggering opponents, or go for a full counter/parry build or style around people with different combo enhancer powers, or just a little mix of every single one. Every single main fight in this game are some of the most iconic and memorable fights i've ever played in a videogame period, every fight is iconic in its own way and after you finish you will definitely remember them all with clear detail which goes to show how memorable they are. After finishing the game there is a NG+ that adds a couple of new enemies to the normal fights as well as some unique moves to the bosses, a new endgame weapon, and overall a fun challenge for people that want to keep playing the game. The game lasted around 100 hours for me for each playthrough. If you decide to get this game, please get the DLC. The dlc adds around 15 extra hours of play and it features not only some of the most beautiful landscapes and music, but also some of the best boss fights in all the game, which definitely made it in my top 3 of best battles in the entire game. It adds a new map, new weapons, new bosses and a brand new expansion on the story. I really would like to get into more details but i don't want to spoil anyone new to the game playing this. If you're a new fan, you'll love this game. If you're an old fan that wants to give a chance to one of the new non-turn-based FF games, you'll have a blast. I think that everyone should experience this story, it has become a must play game that i'll recommend everyone that's looking for games with amazing stories. 10/10.

After playing FFXVI I'm surprised by how much hate I see about it. I didn't have much in the way of issues with performance, it may have been worse on release which was a common complaint, but I do have a pretty good PC so that may also be a factor. Another common complaint is the sidequests are boring and I fully agree. Knowing the team that made this game is the same that made FFXIV (CBU3 in Square Enix) it fits, and is a complaint I have about that game as well (one of so many). The sidequests are very much 50 variations of "go pick 1-3 flower(s) across the continent and maybe fight something that's in the way" and it's unfortunate. They also tend to give you a ton of these sidequests while a world-ending threat has just appeared that you were on the way to deal with and it definitely breaks the illusion of tension and the pacing of the story. Honestly the game would be better without the filler content that was added for time. I did all of these - excluding some of the Rising Tide sidequests - and while some were good, I think most were just added to pad the playtime of the game. There's only so much "Hold [X] to pick up flower" I can do before I start to lose it CBU3, I've been doing it for XIV years now. But the rest of the game is very well put together. The combat is very fun, you can tell it's very Devil May Cry inspired and you can configure your primal powers however you want, from having a bunch of flashy moves to a classic Zantetsuken "I win" button that I never get tired of using. It's not particularly hard on the first play through (on action focused), there were a few times I died on some major story fights but deaths are extremely forgiving. The DLCs are a little harder than the base game, but nothing crazy. New Game+ may be a lot harder, but you have to complete the game once to get there if you want the combat to be more difficult. The story is very fun too, a dark fantasy twist on the Final Fantasy formula while using the primals/eikons as a sort of mecha anime thing, it gets as ridiculous (in a good way) as you can imagine. It's fairly predictable story wise, but that's alright in my opinion as it just is very fun. While I still wish they'd make another lighter turn based FF, the action is very good in this one and I didn't bounce off of it like I did for XV. Overall very fun game. I really hope that Square/CBU3 take the criticism for the game seriously, but also think it gets way too much hate.

Very good story, acceptable gameplay

Looks incredible and the combat is satisfying just unequip all the assist items in the beginning. The story is mid at best the writing feels rushed imo. Get ready for alot of cutscenes (you are more watching than playing it feels like) The rpg elements are non existent there are no elemental damage multipliers or debuff stats to worry about. i personally enjoyed it for just playing through the story. i did skip all the sidequests except the ones that give you permanent extras like bigger potion inventory etc. they are marked with "+" on the map.

It's a good game, solid game in the franchise, but it's nothing "groundbreaking" for the mainline title.  ‍  As of writing this, the year is 2025. I would assume most Final Fantasy franchise fans either played it or crossed it as "won't play" already. I think [b][i][u]for an "outsider", it's a great game[/u][/i][/b]. Story and political narrative have very nice exposition, characters are very well written. Combat is engaging when you're fighting bosses, but it shows some cracks when you're just mowing through "trash mobs". The biggest downside is the equipment system, to say it's linear, sadly would be an understatement still. I won't touch on optimization, since I didn't have any issues or it just didn't bother me enough. Don't get me wrong, even the points that i did praise have their "low points" and cracks. But they're definitely far far from causing me to call them "bad". And as a side note, just so you, dear reader, who maybe never played a Final Fantasy game. get a clear picture- you don't need to play other Final Fantasy games to understand it. It's rather self-contained.  ‍  But, if you're ARPG/Hack and Slash fan who wants to buy this game just for the combat- i don't think there is enough of it there to justify it [strike](at least full price)[/strike]. If you don't really care about the story, you just won't have fun sitting through hours of story exposition and fighting trash mobs over and over again. On the other side- if you're somebody who cares mostly about the story and wants easy but still fun combat, i don't think you'll have fun in this game either. The combat [b]is[/b] fun, but mostly when it challenges you. I can see it easily getting boring when you play on "easy mode" and you press the same one button over and over, while being unable to die.  ‍  It's a bit of an obvious point that will apply to all games, but it's really... [i]icky[/i] thing for that game, at least for me. That point being: [b]I would consider picking up this game [strike](again, full price)[/strike] only if the combat looks fun to you, and you think you'll enjoy the story. If either element doesn’t interest you or you don’t see yourself enjoying it, i would probably hold off with purchase.[/b]

The game keeps crashing on a high end PC. Before the 10 hour mark I had only 1 crash, after that the game crashes every 5-10 minutes, during combats, dialogues, cutscenes. I tried every fix I could find Online, tried the fan patch, put every setting the lowest possible. Absolutely nothing works!! From what I've seen, the actual games seems great, but I can't play for more than 10 minutes, it's absolutely dispicable that they don't even try to fix the port.

So, i bought this game a while back ago, however, i couldn’t get it to run in my pc . it will crash on the very first cut scene. I have a 4090 so to say it was a bummer is very little, after some troubleshooting and some digging i discovered that the game was optimized very poorly and other users where having the same problem, so i ended up requesting a refund. Now after a while, i am going to buy the game and tested it out, lets see if they have finally made the proper optimizations 🤔. I will update my review later on

Love these games but massive problems with this PC port with multiple players saying that it messes with your screen set up which is a fact. You shouldn't walk away from a game for 5 minutes to learn that it's completely dropped monitor 1 from windows requiring a restart.

This was my first Final Fantasy game, and I'm so glad I tried it out. I love so much about this game- Its characters, gameplay, story, music, themes, pretty much all of it. I did all the Sidequests in this game, and while some were kinda tedious, I didn't mind because I loved learning more about the world and moments of downtime through them. And while I agree the action gameplay could be improved, I still had so much fun with it. What I appreciate the most about this story is its themes. One of the big ones being Liberation. I have heard that people say that the story "pivots", gone from [spoiler] Liberating slaves to typical JRPG defeating god, [/spoiler] but that's where I disagree. For what is [spoiler] Defeating a god if not a slave liberating themself from their master on a cosmic scale? [/spoiler]. There's so much I'd like to talk about, but it's probably best I do that on my own time. I love this game and highly recommend it to my friends and anyone else interested.

At the beginning of the game the game is very good but in the middle part of the game it becomes very boring,the garphics are great,but the game still needs some optimizations because sometimes {e.g. leaving a cutscene} the fps drop by a lot even in high end pcs like mine.

Edit: Nvm its good I was cranky. This game is such mediocre dogwater. Performance is terrible, runs like shit after 30mins-1hr needs to be restarted. Missions are a snoozefest. Sidequests are useless and repetitive MMO style. Combat is literally clicking 1 button. Everything is so slow and boring. Main character is cringe as hell, side characters are all so damn boring. The only interesting thing about this game is the music. Overhype trash.

absolute snooze fest. im never going to be fooled by a demo again in my life. everything in this game is boring. imagine smashing 2 buttons 99% of the time.

Ton of fun, a little empty in some parts but the combat stays entertaing, the characters are engaging and as a long time fan - the Eikon fights are amazing.

Amazing game. Felt like playing a movie. One of my Favourite final fantasy thus far. The characters were incredible, the action felt epic, the combat was very fun. My only complaints are the side missions were not very fun and sometimes the Npc characters seemed robotic Also the game is far too easy. They should have included a harder mode not locked behind a new game plus. There is heavy ghosting when using DLSS they need to make better ports to pc.

This game plays itself. 6hrs in and I haven't died once. I haven't found any loot that wasn't placed right in my path. And it's 90% video sequence. You more or less run in a straight line, combat a bit and then watch an hour of talking, repeat. **Followup** I died for the first time around the 9hrs mark. 19hrs in now and I haven't died again. The game has gotten more interesting I suppose. Around the 12hr mark the video/game ratio has fallen from 90/10% to 80/20%. It might just be the low bar, but it has technically become more enjoyable. I really don't know why they did this. **Followup** The game balances out to about 50/50% around the 23hr mark.

Im an older bloke who played ff8 on demo as a kid all the way to ff13, i stopped playing video games like this for many years due to just not having time despite having consoles and PC.... this particular game has given me the typical nostalgia of an ff title cross an old GOW title, i do miss the old turn base but the combat is still great. i'm probably a bit bias as i've always been a bit of a sucker for most Square Enix titles in my youth though.

Final Fantasy XVI Review - Two Years Later! I wanted to write this review on the eve of it's two-year anniversary. I was truly captivated by Final Fantasy XVI, particularly by its darker, more mature narrative. The story delves into complex themes of power, betrayal, and sacrifice, creating a gritty atmosphere that sets it apart from previous entries. For example, the intense scenes involving the political machinations and inner conflicts of the characters amplify this darker tone, making the story feel both compelling and emotionally charged. The character development in the game mirrors elements from Game of Thrones, with deeply layered characters navigating morally ambiguous situations. Clive's transformation from a driven soldier to a more layered and conflicted hero is particularly admirable, reminiscent of the nuanced character arcs seen in the iconic series. The intricate relationships and betrayals further add to the realism and depth of the narrative. Visually, the game is breathtaking. The attention to scenery and the action-packed graphics are nothing short of spectacular. Each environment feels alive and meticulously crafted-from the lush, vivid landscapes to the detailed cityscapes. The dynamic combat sequences are fluid and exhilarating, making every boss fight feel epic and immersive. The visuals truly elevate the gaming experience to a cinematic level. The voice acting also deserves praise. The cast nailed their roles, bringing authenticity and emotion to every line. For instance, the lead's somber yet fierce delivery during pivotal moments added weight and engagement, pulling players deeper into the story. I loved Final Fantasy XVI so much that I initially played it on my PS5, enjoying the base game, the DLC, and even trying out New Game+ to experience the story from a fresh perspective. Its immersive world and engaging gameplay left such an impression that I recently re-bought it on Steam just to stream it and share my philosophical input on the game's themes, characters, and narrative intricacies. It's rare for a game to inspire such a dual-layered experience for me. However, the game isn't without its flaws. One area where it struggled was in the direction, likely affected by the studio's simultaneous development of two AAA titles. It sometimes felt like the game's pacing and narrative focus were compromised, with certain sequences feeling rushed or underdeveloped, hinting that the studio's priorities might have been split. Overall, Final Fantasy XVI is a visually stunning, narratively rich, and emotionally resonant experience-despite some developmental challenges. It's a must-play for fans of darker stories and epic adventures.

Game... run... poor... FPS... all.. over... place... in... menu screen... Wait it works n... no... still... bad... All jokes aside, this is the last Final Fantasy game I ever buy. If SquareEnix is comfortable releasing a game that can't runs on lowest settings on a rig that can play Monster Hunter Wilds at 4k (one of the most unoptimized games of 2025) then I am comfortable putting them on my list of shitty devs. This is the worst purchase I've made in a very long time.

I want to preface this review by saying this was my first Final Fantasy game. That bit of context is important because based on my understanding, FF XVI represents a pretty big departure for the series in terms of core gameplay with a number of series staples such as party members and turn-based combat being absent. All this is to say, I can't speak to the appeal Final Fantasy XVI does or does not have to long-time fans of the series, but I can speak to what about this game appealed to me, a new player. I was drawn to Final Fantasy XVI primarily for its world and story; from the outset, Square Enix hyped up XVI as being a darker, gritter, more adult entry in the Final Fantasy franchise, and on that front, Square really delivered. Valisthea is a deeply political game in its construction, full of Machiavellian intrigue and maneuvering armies vying for control over the realm's ever-dwindling resources. Valisthea is powered by the Mothercrystals, massive crystal formations that are the source of the world's magic. The people of Valisthea are entirely dependent on magic for their day-to-day lives, but as the crystals' power has begun to wane, an all-consuming blight spreads across the realm, consuming everything in its path and rendering more and more of the realm uninhabitable. This plunges the kingdoms of Valisthea into a war for the realm's remaining land and resources, and central to their plans are the elemental gods known as Eikons, and their human avatars, known as Dominants. Eikons are essentially weapons of mass destruction, their use in battle a harbinger of incalculable devastation; a single Eikon can lay waste to entire armies, or turn a capital city into a smoldering crater, and as such, the kingdoms of Valisthea teeter on a knife's edge of mutually-assured destruction. In this sense, Valisthea can be viewed as an allegory to the real world: The mothercrystals and the magic they provide represent fossil fuels. As more and more of the crystals' magic is used up, the blight that begins to consume the world represents climate change. Finally, the terrible power of the Eikons and Dominants can be viewed as a stand-in for nuclear weapons, their use in battle becoming ever more likely - despite the terrible cost - as resources deplete and nations grow desperate. This is the backdrop against which Final Fantasy XVI takes place, and if that premise sounds cool to you, there's a good chance you're going to like this game. It certainly sounded cool to me, which is why I decided to pick this game up. One big advantage of Final Fantasy being an anthology series is that it gives Square the freedom to take big risks with their characters, and it's this risk-taking that imbues Final Fantasy XVI with a real sense of danger and stakes. Nowadays, most franchises are content to tell bland stories with established characters who are never in any real danger. However, with an anthology series, where you know you're never going to revisit this world or these characters again, you have the freedom to do whatever you want, and Square's willingness to take the plot armor away from its characters really established Final Fantasy XVI as a "game for adults" in my eyes. To be clear, characters you have come to know and love WILL die in this game and it WILL bum you the hell out. I've honestly come to love it when a game bums me the hell out. because at least it's making me feel SOMETHING, in an age where most media is so bland and overly-cautious that I come away from it feeling nothing. Seriously, the characters in this game are truly excellent, you will have deep, poignant moments with each of them, and these moments feel earned and built towards, and that's what kept me going in the times when gameplay became arduous and monotonous. And yeah, this game can be a bit of slog sometimes. To start, side quest design is probably the worst I have ever seen in any video game ever. For real, the side quests in this game are awful, you can skip basically all of them: the set-ups are boring, the gameplay never ventures beyond your stock-standard fetch or kill quest, and the loot you get out of them is next to worthless (here's 100 gil and an amulet that reduces a single ability's cooldown time by 1.8 seconds). Unless you're a sicko like me who has a compulsion to clear quest markers off a map, there's really no reason to do ANY of the side content in this game with the exception of maybe 2 questlines. Some of that boring, uninspired side quest design seeps its way into the main quest as well, and that's when this game can become REALLY arduous. I think Square Enix *knew* that the quest design in this game was bad because they actually lean into it for comedic effect later on: towards the end of the game, you carry out yet more fetch quests for an NPC, only for that NPC to be like "by the way, when this is all over, I'm going to destroy my life's work and bury the schematics so that it can never fall into the wrong hands! :)" as just a huge middle finger to the player, like the developers were saying "yup, you just totally wasted your time IDIOT!" I can appreciate how Square Enix had a sense of humor about their game's shortcomings, but I think I would have appreciated better side quests even more. FF XVI has this quasi-episodic structure to it, with the rogues gallery presented to the player in a serialized, "villain of the week" format. This is both a strength and weakness, as it allows each villain to get their moment in the spotlight and helps the game's chapters feel distinct, but the drawback is, you don't even meet the game's main villain until about the 15-hour mark, and only start interacting with him directly at the *40-hour mark*. A main villain who by the way is easily the least interesting of the bunch. The fact that it takes so long for the game's main antagonist to be properly introduced and even longer for his plan to come into focus makes this game feel meandering at times, and while I felt the story as a whole was very strong, it did lose a little focus at the endgame. The game's pacing has been likened to a see-saw, with each chapter beginning with mundane busy work and culminating in those big, marquee boss fights. I didn't mind this pacing but I can see how it's not going to sit right with everyone. The way I like to put it is, Final Fantasy XVI is a game that is constantly "zooming out" and enlarging in scope, right up to the end credits; the early game is defined by Clive's PERSONAL quest for vengeance, the middle game zooms out into the POLITICAL strife of Valisthea, and the end game zooms out yet again into the METAPHYSICAL realm of gods, prophecies, and a battle over creation itself. That last "zoom out" is where the game becomes a little unwieldy, and in my view loses some of that tight allegorical focus that made the early and middle game so compelling. But, on the other hand, without those big, apocalyptic stakes, is it really a Final Fantasy game? I had some more thoughts but this review actually exceeded Steam's character limit so I have to cut this short, but I've had nearly 3 months to let this game marinate in my brain, and I wanted to make sure that this review was as exhaustive as possible. As much fun as Final Fantasy XVI is to play, it's almost more fun to *think about* and *talk about*. At the end of my 55-hour playthrough, I felt very strongly that Final Fantasy XVI was good, but why is it good? What makes it good despite its very obvious shortcomings? The conclusion I ultimately came to was that this setting, these characters, and this story were all so compelling, they kept me coming back to see it through to the end. At the end of the day I'm glad for the time I spent with Final Fantasy XVI, and if anything about this world or these characters is clicking with you, absolutely you should pick it up, I think there's every chance you're ever gonna have a great time with this one. 8/10

This is a baby game. No two ways about it. There is no RPG in this Action game save for aesthetic. But the aesthetic is nice. I recommend this game, but only if you want to turn your brain off for a bit. I would not buy this at full price.

Fantastic Game. Amazing boss fights. Overall combat is great, specifically the Eikon mechanics, but Clive's attack combos could have been deeper but I guess the Eikons are the stars of this show. The game has a great story and great character performances. It is worthy to note though, my PC struggled to get this game to run fluid, not until I upgraded my build I was able to really get immersed into Valisthea and boy this game is beautiful.

I couldn't finish this game and was on chapter 44, super close to finishing the game. It's just ssssooo boring. The combat get's old real fast and isn't challenging on their "action focused" gameplay, the story drags really hard later into the game and it's a similar rehashed type of story we've seen in countless other FF games. I am just gonna watch the last 3 hours of story/cut scenes on YouTube ... or maybe a short recap of how it ends. I feel a sunk cost fallacy and want to finish the story/game but cannot put myself through playing the game any longer. Games are supposed to be fun... this one just isn't and the story isn't nearly good enough to push me through playing. Real glad I didn't buy any of the DLC. I wish I could give a number rating because Steam's just up or down isn't good enough. I want to give this game like... a 6... Idk, I wouldn't recommend buying or playing this game TBH it's just nothing special. I've also seen other people note preformance issues, I didn't experience any but I have a juiced rig... I promise even if their rigs didn't stuggle, it doesn't make this game good. I really like FF7 remake and excited to play FF7 rebirth, but ngl, this game makes me.... want to contain any hope or excitement for future NEW FF games.

Amazing game, took too long for it to come out on PC that I think a lot of people lost interest or they just accepted playing it on console, so don't let the "low" amount of reviews spook you at all. The game is incredible, rather dark and graphic at times, with a good story that just kept getting better. I used a mod to increase difficulty *tremendously* before even testing to see what the normal game felt like and I'm sure it was a good decision, as well as a mod to increase the cutscene FPS which is otherwise locked to 30fps without said mods. Super happy with it

Incredibly beautiful story and graphics. It gets wonderfully dark in the right places. This is one of the only JRPGs where I've completed and enjoyed every side quest. The combat is a very pleasant ARPG style with different elements you can switch between. Thankfully the devs allow you to equip handicaps to make the fighting easier without impacting gameplay too much.

The performance, while not flawless, is markedly better than it was on release of the demo. Great game so far

This game is absolutely amazing i am 10 hours in - I am savoring every moment! Thanks for such a beautiful video game

Constant unfixable memory leaks that cause performance to tank after the game is open for a short while Without the ff16 cutscene fix mod, EVERY cutscene runs at 15fps or lower, and even then the moment phoenix appears the FPS drops into single digits The combat due to the memory leak issues turns into an actual slog where characters move in real time slow motion and inputs are eaten this is using an RTX 4070 with frame gen on, a rig that can chew up cyberpunk w/ raytracing maxed out no issue I love Yoshi P. and the work his team puts out when it comes to FF14, and I was hoping to experience FF16 in a new light now that Denuvo isn't a factor in the full game. I was sorely mistaken, and disappointed at every turn.

Its fantastic. I am huge fan of Final fantasy since FF VII/VIII and this one is first one after FFX I truly enjoy.

I've nearly finished the game and while i loved most of the main story there are way too many mmo styled fetch quests as part of the main quest line, the game feels like it should be about 20 hours shorter, they don't have to pad things out to keep me playing until my subscription renews so why do i have to go collect sand and buy garlic to progress the story, it just feels largely like time wasting for no reason.

The story was amazing and mature. I did not expect to ever see a protagonist of his age. I seriously think this is worth a try. Its not perfect, but overwhelmingly delivers. The characters have growth, the music was amazing and the game play was great. It wasn't too difficult nor was it too easy. Some pacing of side quests could be improved and some final fantasy game mechanics were not included which made it feel lacking. It was beautiful and truly different from your typical final fantasy game. I wish there was more explored with the characters prior to the main game. I hope there will be a DLC for that, I'd love to see that. The story, and game play was fresh. I really enjoyed my experience playing it and I almost did not want to finish my run.

Its pretty sick imo. I'm having fun. Fighting is good and the story is good so far. Still more to play though.

The combat has some nice fluidity but it doesn't feel that deep. it isn't bad by any means but it isn't great either. the story and world are quite interesting and well done. biggest complaint honestly is the pacing of the game feels really strange, either too slow or jumping around too much, and having cut scenes splashed intersticially in a weird way. Overall it is a solid 8/10 and i definitely prefer the more mature direction this game takes, but the pacing issues and the simplistic combat may turn off some.

The graphics are phenomenal. One of the best voice-acted games in the franchise, if not the gaming industry. Great action sequences, fun gameplay, and great musical score. This game suffers however what all modern Final Fantasy games suffer from- they are so far removed from their origin game's namesake, they really shouldn't be called Final Fantasy any longer. I feel like I'm repeating myself with every generation of this franchise.

the graphics are amazing, lots of fun side quests and a great main story.

Great game that unfortunately runs very poorly.

Final Fantasy 16 takes the FF formula, and throws it out of the window. Its real time action, feeling sorta like devil may cry in its own unique way, while having an awesome story to go with it, a story that takes a much darker tone compared to other ff games, and being raw medieval fantasy, instead of the normal and usual fantasy w/ a lil sci-fi mix. plus, the game looks f-cking amazing.

Until the end of Titan boss fight was great. After that, it was obvious that they had run out of budget. As a Final Fantasy game, it had more stunning and better graphics compared to XV. And compared to the VII Remake, it had better fights. But in terms of story and variety, it doesn’t reach their level.

Awesome game. Main quest is repetitive, though. I found myself skipping through the cutscenes to get to the boss fights